NZSL311 Key Terms Wk 2

Discourse

Unit of language longer than a sentence: talk, interaction, conversation, use of language in context

Coherence

Overall clarity and meaningfulness of a text (passage of talk or writing).

Cohesion

Features of lexicon and grammar that link different parts of a text together

Conversation regulators

Conventional (shared) cues that members of a language community use and recognize to manage turn-taking and interaction in conversation

Discourse Markers

Lexical items that shape the direction of the discourse – including conjunctions, fillers, and in NZSL, NMS such as nod

Collaborative floor

Group interaction where overlap and backchannel are the norm – speakers can ‘self-select’ to contribute to the conversation (typically informal context, but also cultural and gender factors may be relevant)

Single Floor

Group interaction where overlap is infrequent- one speaker at a time is the norm (typically more formal contexts, but also cultural and gender factors may be relevant)

Ellipsis

Omission of words or elements of a sentence that will be understood from the context

Anaphoric reference

Means of referring back to referents or antecedents in the text – usually pronouns (and spatial reference in SL)

Spatial mapping

Associating areas of the signing space with referents in a text – eg, persons, timeframes, locations, events, ideas

Constructed action

Re-telling/ enactment of action and talk in SL (also known as role-shift, referential shift, perspective-taking)

Back-channel

Listener feedback that signal attention (sounds/ signs/ non-manual signals)